Louisville Visual Art, Louisville, KY, USA, 2025

SPARK, an artwork on the façade of Louisville Visual Art, fuses the essence of creative energy and channels the spirit of this long-standing community art hub. The artwork gives expression to the organization’s role as a nexus of inspiration that brings people together to foster new talent, share artistic ideas, create connections, and spark the imagination.

The artwork combines a mural, sculpture, and LED lighting. Linear beams of bright color radiate out from a white-hot core, through vaporous flares and nebula inspired by the formation of our galaxy. At night, like a neural transmission, acrylic rods highlighting the radiating lines are internally illuminated in pulsing and radiating color, set against a painted background that is also lit with wall-washing lights. Incorporated into the mural are small images representing stardust emanating from this creative burst. These images were created by artists working at Louisville Visual Art, visually celebrating individual artists coming together as a creative community.

SPARK was commissioned by Louisville Visual Art, with funding from Gretchen and John Clark through the Robert W. Rounsavall, Jr. Family Foundation. Haddad Drugan worked with a team of all local artisans and technicians to implement the artwork. Mural painting was by Often Seen Rarely Spoken, sculpture fabrication and installation was by Rockerbuilt, electrical installation was by St. Matthews Electric, and light show programming was by Mimic Visuals (David Main and Nate Leininger).